Seattle most popular — and mail-efficient — U.S. city

Consider it a boost for Seattle’s self-esteem as we enter the second rainy season. Two different rankings give Seattle top marks in the U.S.: one for popularity, the other for mail efficiency.

A national telephone survey this month asking variations of a single question — “Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of [insert name here]?” — resulted in Seattle leading 20 other cities. Public Policy Polling says 57 percent of U.S. voters rated Seattle favorably and only 14 percent unfavorably, edging out Portland, OR, which came in second with 52 percent favorable, 12 percent unfavorable. Boston was third.

At the bottom of the list? Oakland, Detroit and Los Angeles, the only cities which have what the pollster calls “net negative impressions.”

Meanwhile, the junk mail opt-out firm Catalog Choice has surveyed its customers, and found that Seattle made the most removal requests per capita last month. (Santa Fe and Boulder came in second and third.) The Atlantic Cities reports that activity put Seattle at the top of Catalog Choice’s ranking of 20 “mail-efficient” metropolitan areas for March. It might help that the Berkeley, CA-based non-profit works with the City of Seattle to manage both phone book and junk mail delivery.

Frank Catalano (@FrankCatalano) is an independent consultant to firms in education and consumer technology, a veteran industry analyst, and a professional speaker and author. His regular GeekWire columns take a practical nerd’s approach to tech.